Friday, November 16, 2007

Greenpeace calls for carbon tax on India’s rich consumers

Here's an interesting approach. Now how about a $500 per mile tax on private/corporate jets, that'll separate the wealthy from the parvenu or wannabe crowd. Back to Mrs. Astor's 400!*From The Hindu:

The country’s greenhouse gas emissions are being fuelled almost entirely by the rapidly growing rich consumers, who despite being just a fraction of the 1.1-billion population are eating into the carbon space needed for the development of over 800 million poor in the country, according to environmental watchdog Greenpeace.

In a new report titled ‘Hiding behind the poor’, Greenpeace has called for a special tax for higher carbon emissions on the nation’s wealthy consumers, who, it says, are nearly at par with consumers in some of the developed nations in terms of per capita greenhouse gas emissions.

It says the economic divide within India is translating into a widening emission divide, with some 150 million Indians, who are splurging on luxury goods and air travel, producing 4.5 times more carbon emissions than the 800 million poor....MORE